I ordered TaxCut software back in October as they are a bit cheaper than the main competition (TurboTax) and were also throwing in free state with the purchase of federal as well. The price is for the downloaded version, and I immediately downloaded the federal version.
However, the state version (California) was not yet ready and was informed that I'd receive an email when it was ready for download.
1 month later (November) I received the email and set it aside knowing that I didn't have any of my tax documents ready so didn't need the software yet.
Last week (a bit over 2 months since I received notification that state was available for download) I go to download the State software and find that I can't. Apparently your download is only good for 60 days from the date of purchase, at which point you need to pay another $4.99 to "backup" your download for an additional 2 years.
At this point I'm furious as I've now paid for software which I've never received! I also find out that I need to turn in my rebate form within 30 days of purchase so I've lost out on that as well.
I guess that's what I get for not reading the fine print, but I contact their customer support anyway and tell them the situation. They do not budge after chatting with their customer service for 30 minutes.
Like it's going to actually cost them anything to let me download something I never downloaded in the first place! It probably cost them more than $4.99 to pay the customer service rep to chat with me for that long. I could understand TaxCut's position if I had actually received the software and then lost it but I feel like I've paid extra to get something I never received.
I imagine that a lot of customers have been caught by these loopholes and that is how they are making a significant amount of extra revenue. I feel that it is shady practice, so I am recommending to everyone to avoid TaxCut software.
Their main competitor TurboTax while costing a few bucks more up-front at least appears to offer an immediate rebate on the state product with the purchase of federal saving you from the hassle of filling out any rebate forms. In the future I'll be using TurboTax and recommending that product to all friends and colleages.
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Taxcut is a ripoff! Doing my taxes, I had to efile state and federal costing a little over $30.
Then, I got a rejection. When I corrected the issue, I resubmit just to be asked for my VISA information again and a notice saying I will be charged 30 more dollars! Wait a second: the resubmission is FREE according to their help file. So, I go to their "customer service" and am given a form to fill out. I fill it out, and I get a message saying I have invalid characters in my message. What invalid characters? So i took out spaces between paragraphs. "You have invalid characters". This tells me H&R Block are so cheap they hire high school students to write their webpages. I have no clue what characters are considered INVALID.
But, I can take a hint: they just want my money, they know I want to complain or ask for a refund and they are making it hard on me.
TaxCut definitely SUCKS!
I usually buy TexCut softwares from H&R Block store at very reasonable price....!
A few more "features" of Taxcut that you won't find out about until next year are:
1 You cannot open previous year's return file with this year's program.
2. You can download previous years programs for the full list price but beware. If you used a state version in your old return, you need to buy the old State download also, even just to open your Fed return.
As I recall Turbo Tax would open tax files from all previous years without any problem. With Taxcut you had better save the program disk for every year if you ever want to re-open an old return.
Looks like taxcut screwed up and didn't include my state sales tax deduction. I didn't even know I get a sales tax deduction until a friend using a different tax software program told me.
Way to make me lose money, H&R Block!
Taxcut is retarded!
I had some "other income", not on a W2. I entered it as such on line 21.
Taxcut (retarded) added it to the W2 income in line 7as well as on line 21 thus adding it twice so I could pay more taxes.
Like I said it's RETARDED!
wtf!! They don't tell you that the credit card information you provide doesn't pay the tax you owe in a way it is obvious! Then when you get redirected to a third party payment ... you have to pay $60 if you owe more that $1500! It's all a scam!
I'll be using another tax software next year.
Agreed. I've used Turbo Tax for 5 years and switched to Tax Cut in 2008 because of the lower price. What a mistake! I find myself having to override values on forms because the Federal and State portions aren't properly syncing after making revisions. The $30 I saved pales in comparison to the 2-3 hours of confusion and frustration.
I recently switched to TaxSlayer.com. It's not quite as user-friendly as TaxCut or TurboTax, but it is still quite good. I've had coworkers who have used it to file their first income tax return without any problems.
The best part: It's damn near free--you only pay to efile--and it is 100% free for military members. Also, it keeps your previous years' data for you.
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